6.
MINUTES OF THE SESSION OF THE ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITTEE.
18 (5) April 1905

1) The Organizational Committee, having reviewed the data at its disposal concerning the number of party organizations that have expressed themselves categorically in favor of the congress, establishes that resolutions in favor of the congress have been adopted by 26 (twenty-six) committees (St. Petersburg, Moscow, North, Nizhny, Tver, Tula, Riga, Voronezh, Saratov, Odessa, Caucasian Union — 8 votes, — Nikolaev, Urals, Orel-Bryansk, Kursk, Smolensk, Kremenchug, Polessk, North-Western, Kharkov, Kiev*), Samara, Siberia). Note. A written resolution has not been received from Kremenchug.

The Central Committee has adopted a resolution on the immediate convocation of the III Party Congress on 4 March old style and has resolved to send its delegate and two representatives in the Party Council from the Central Committee (appointed 4/17 April) to the congress. Thus, 55 votes (without Kiev 51) out of 77 have been cast in favor of the immediate convocation of the congress. The remaining 21 votes belong to: 8 committees (Astrakhan, Kazan, Kuban, Don, Mining, Ekaterinoslav, Crimean, Union and League), 3 — to the Party Council, and 2 — to the editorial board of *Iskra*.

Note. Comrade Lenin, member of the Organizational Committee, maintains a special opinion, rejecting the right to a decisive vote of the committees: Kazan, Kuban, Kremenchug.

*) Concerning the Kiev Committee there are two contradictory resolutions: one sent to the Organizational Committee — in favor of the congress, the other published in No. 95 of *Iskra* — against the congress. The congress itself will have to sort out this contradiction 2).

MINUTES OF THE SESSION OF THE ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITTEE

2) The Organizational Committee establishes that at present delegates have been elected and are abroad from the committees of: St. Petersburg, Moscow, North, Nizhny Novgorod, Tula, Riga, Voronezh, Saratov, Odessa, Caucasus (4)3), Nikolaev, Urals, Orel-Bryansk, Kursk, North-Western, Kharkov, Kiev, Samara, Siberia4), Smolensk4), from the Central Committee (1 delegate and 2 representatives of the Central Committee in the Council), Tver5), having in total 52 votes. Besides, delegates have arrived from organizations with consultative vote: St. Petersburg group, Kharkov group, Tver periphery, Arkhangelsk "committee" (concerning the invitation of the Arkhangelsk delegate to the congress, the Organizational Committee leaves the question open pending the session at the place of the congress). For inviting delegates from the Baku group and Tiflis committee, with the right of consultative vote, the following measures have been adopted: The Organizational Committee on 13 March old style sent all documents and written invitations; the Central Committee has been instructed to invite the named organizations through its local agent. The Nizhny Novgorod and Riga committees have been notified of the invitation to the congress of the Sormovo and Riga groups on the basis set forth in the declaration of the Central Committee of 4 March. The Nizhny Novgorod committee has not responded, the Riga committee has adopted a resolution stating that the Riga group does not satisfy the conditions necessary for participation in the congress with the right of consultative vote, according to the declaration of the Central Committee of 4 March. The Organizational Committee, in view of the fact that the grounds for depriving the Riga group of the right of consultative vote have not been sufficiently clarified and in view of the impossibility of verifying these grounds due to lack of time, for a second time resolves to offer the Riga group to send a delegate to the congress, and immediately notifies the Riga group of this (the execution has been undertaken by the Central Committee). Comrade Felix — M. M. Litvinov, member of the Organizational Committee, on this question maintained a special opinion, finding that the conclusion of the Riga Committee is sufficiently motivated and correct in substance.

The notification of the Moscow group of printing workers was entrusted to Comrade Yuri [L. B. Kamenev (?) — Ed.] and the report on the execution of this assignment will be presented by him at the place of the congress.

No response has been received from the Odessa group; concerning the invitation of the Ekaterinoslav group, the Organizational Committee leaves this question open pending the session at the place of the congress °).

The Organizational Committee resolves to send an invitation to the congress with the right of consultative vote to the Ukrainian social-democratic union (the execution has been undertaken by the Central Committee). The Committee of Foreign Organizations has been invited with the right of consultative vote.

3) Proceeding from the factual data set forth above and guided by the provision of the party statute that a congress is considered valid if it is represented by organizations having together more than 1/2 of the decisive votes, as well as by the agreement between the Central Committee and the Bureau of Committees of the Majority7), the Organizational Committee resolves that the congress should be opened immediately. However, on the basis of the declaration of the Central Committee that the Party Council, in adopting its resolution concerning the congress published in No. 95 of *Iskra*, was not sufficiently informed of all the factual conditions for convening the III Party Congress and of the state of party affairs in Russia, owing to the non-receipt by the Council of appropriate written and oral communications, the Organizational Committee resolves to postpone the opening of the congress for 7 days 8), during which the Central Committee will inform the Party Council concerning the factual data on the convening of the congress.

[4. After the specified period, the Organizational Committee holds its last session at the place of the congress and, having received from the Central Committee notification of the final actions of the Council concerning the congress for publication to inform the entire party and its delegates at the congress, opens the congress on 25 (new style) April 1905.]

4. On 25 April new style the Organizational Committee holds its last session at the place of the congress and opens the congress9).

5. All delegates abroad are notified of the day of the opening of the congress.

For the Central Committee Nikitich. [L. B. Krasin.]
For the Bureau of Committees of the Majority Zemlyachka *).

*) The signatures of Nikitich and Zemlyachka on the manuscript are authentic.
— Ed.

MINUTES OF THE SESSION OF THE ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITTEE

*) The Organizational Committee was formally established on 25 (12) March 1905. By agreement between the Central Committee and the Bureau of Committees of the Majority, the composition of the Organizational Committee included the entire composition of the Bureau of the Committee of the Majority and the Central Committee (for more details on the Organizational Committee see Protocols of the 3rd Congress, pp. 22 — 26). The protocol of the Organizational Committee presented here was recorded in the hand of N. K. Krupskaya. The session took place in Geneva.

2) In a letter from the Central Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party to the Chairman of the Party Council G. V. Plekhanov of 23 (10) April 1905, it states: "...The Kiev Committee, although it adopted on 25 March a resolution against the congress, subsequently elected a delegate to the congress and sent him abroad."
Works, vol. VII, p. 230 and Protocols of the Congress, p. 35.

3) The figure 4 means — 4 delegates from the committees of Baku, Batumi, Tiflis, Imereti-Mingrelian.

4) Delegates from the Siberian and Smolensk committees did not appear at the congress, thus betraying the trust of the committees that elected them. (Protocols of the III Congress, p. 113.)

5) The Tver committee transferred its mandate for the congress to Parvus (abroad), who did not appear at the congress. (Ibid., pp. 58 and 67.)

°) At the beginning of February 1905 in Ekaterinoslav, parallel to the Menshevik committee, an organization of Bolsheviks began to function. The Congress, on the proposal of the Credentials Commission, recognized this organization as a parallel group to the committee, and its delegate (Zharkov — Leschinskii) was granted consultative vote.

7) This concerns § 1 of the "agreement between the Central Committee and the Bureau of committees of the majority" of 25 (12) March 1905, according to which the Organizational Committee was to organize the congress immediately, regardless of the Party Council's resolution on the question of convening the congress. (§ 1 of the "agreement" was published in No. 15 of *Vpered* of 20 (7) April 1905 in Lenin's article: "The Exposed Council," Works, vol. VII, pp. 225 — 228).

8) The congress indeed opened on 25 April (new style) 1905.

°) The last session of the Organizational Committee took place not on 25 April, but on 24 April 1905. (Protocols of the Congress, p. 41.)